THE basic principles of rugby are the three Ps - pace, power and possession.

New Zealand had all of those in abundance on Saturday, while the "P" Wales had was a pasting.

Steve Hansen's boys were hoping to build on an encouraging performance against Australia the week before, but they were blitzed by a magnificent All Blacks side.

I think it's the best team Wales have played against in the last year. They were just so clinical and efficient.

They were also still seething at having lost to England, which made them all the more dangerous.

It was fascinating to be in New Zealand to see the reaction to that defeat.

The talk was of nothing else all week. They were looking at every reason under the sun to explain away why they lost.

They blamed the ref, England killing the ball, anything they could think of.

They don't take defeat very well out there and we copped the backlash from that.

The biggest difference between the two sides in Hamilton was the sheer physical power of the All Blacks, particularly the forwards.

The problem we have is we are not a nation of big people and a good big one will always beat a good little 'un.

Every time New Zealand drove in they really meant it. We were like little boys by comparison.

A number of our young forwards who are used to driving over the gain line in domestic rugby found themselves being stopped in their tracks and knocked back. They will have woken up bruised and battered on Sunday and realising what Test rugby is all about.

If there was one collision that was the pivotal moment of the game it was Jerry Collins' huge hit on Colin Charvis. It not only knocked the stuffing out of Charvis, but out of the whole Wales team.

Shortly after that Martyn Williams had to leave the field for stitches and there was a lack of leadership for a while.

Wales started squandering their limited possession with mis-directed throws and spillages in the tackle.

They just had no ball, and you can't play without the ball.

It became one-way traffic out there. It was a sorry sight.

For well over an hour it was like a New Zealand training session. They were going through all their repertoire.

You couldn't fault the Welsh boys for commitment or lack of heart. Everybody tried their very best and they stuck to it.

They were just completely outplayed. The gulf in class was there for all to see. They were just better than us in every department. I had a fear that this would happen.

It shows how far the top nations have advanced and how far we have slumped.

A Mercedes will beat a Mini every time.

I just hope our young players will learn from the experience, rather than being broken by it.

I can well remember being part of a young Wales side that went out to New Zealand 30 years ago.

We travelled there as Triple Crown winners thinking we had a chance and we came back with our tails between our legs, having been completely overrun in both Test matches.

I like to think we learned from that. It certainly hardened my resolve. I worked harder and I trained harder.

Two years later, a number of that Welsh side returned to New Zealand as part of the winning Lions side. So it can be done.

Our guys will have learned a lot more in defeat against the All Blacks than they would have done from going to a lesser country and winning.

What we've got to concentrate on is developing our young players into powerful athletes.

We have got to have a structure in place that gives us bigger guys for us to compete with the likes of New Zealand.